This invention relates generally to swimming pool accessories, and in particular to a buoyant lounge chair for supporting a person in a seated position while the chair is floating in water.
Swimming pools offer personal recreation and relaxation in a variety of settings, for example in private homes, apartment complexes, motels, resorts and country clubs. Various flotation devices including buoyant chairs, rafts, water wings, floating cushions, body floats and air mattresses are used by swimmers as an aid for floating and relaxing on the surface of the water, while remaining seated upright, reclining or lounging, either partially or completely submerged. These items of pool furniture include flotation cushions made of a buoyant material such as open cell foam, closed cell foam, cork, kapok, fiberglass or balsa wood, which are sealed within a protective outer covering.
A popular item of pool furniture is the buoyant lounge chair that permits a swimmer to relax on the surface of the water in a seated, semi-reclining orientation. In some lounge chair designs, the angle of recline is fixed and determined by the form of the rigid frame on which buoyancy cushions are attached, for example as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,086,150, which is incorporated herein by reference. In other lounge chair designs, the chair back is pivotably coupled to the frame on which buoyancy cushions are attached, for example as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,312,054, which is incorporated herein by reference. Those buoyant lounge chairs, manufactured and sold by Texas Recreation Corporation of Wichita Falls, Tex. have met with considerable commercial success. The present invention was stimulated by the need for a buoyant lounge chair having pivotal chair back that can be set in an upright, semi-reclining sitting position, in which the pool chair functions essentially as a buoyant chair, to a fully folded, minimum profile configuration for storage purposes, and to facilitate handling and shipment. For convenience and comfort, the back rest should be easily set in the standard angle of recline provided by conventional fixed-back lounge chairs.
According to another conventional buoyant lounge chair arrangement, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,662,852, the back rest frame is pivotally connected to the seat frame and is inclined against a rear cross bar, and the seat frame is braced by releasable engagement of a slotted bracket with a forward cross bar. The angle of recline is adjusted by extending and retracting the slotted bracket relative to the forward cross bar. This movement translates into angle of recline adjustment as the two sections pivot about a common hinge axis.
An important consideration in the design and construction of buoyant lounge chairs, including those including a foldable back, is the maintenance of a water-tight seal about the cushion material and around the welded metal frame. The interlocking components of the foldable seat back coupling apparatus should also be protected.
The external surface of the lounge chair is susceptible to attack by mildew, fungus, surface hardening, cracking and shrinking that are caused by long-term exposure to water, pool chemicals and solar radiation. Consequently, lounge chairs as well as other buoyant flotation devices are desirably protected by a durable, non-reactive coating of plastic material, such as vinyl. The protective coating must be soft, pliable and able to withstand rough handling and high shear forces along the joinder lines between the chair arms, the chair seat, and along the flex lines between the chair back and chair seat. The protective coating is applied by various processes, including dipping and spraying, preferably as set forth in our U.S. Pat. No. 6,086,150, incorporated herein by reference.
Another limitation imposed by the construction of conventional lounge chairs is that the buoyant arm support sections are subject to tearing or deformation, and are also subject to collapse and separation from the chair frame at the interface between the arm support sections and the chair seat.
Special care should be taken in the construction of buoyant lounge chairs to provide sufficient buoyancy material to maintain a stable upright orientation while the occupant is in a semi-reclining or sitting orientation. The buoyant lounge chair can overturn in response to shifting of its center of buoyancy as the occupant turns or moves about.
The buoyant lounge chair of the present invention provides stable support for a swimmer in an upright, semi-reclining or sitting position while the chair is floating in a swimming pool. Interconnected rigid frame members collectively form an open chair frame. In the preferred embodiment, the frame members include a seat frame, left and right side arm frames attached to the seat frame, and a movable back frame. The back frame is pivotally coupled to the seat frame on opposite sides by dual axle shafts. A manually operable clutch is mounted on each axle shaft for releasably connecting the seat frame to the back frame. Each clutch is manually releasable to permit pivotal movement of the back frame relative to the seat frame, and is manually engagable to fix the angle of recline of the back frame relative to the seat frame, for example for use in the upright sitting position.
Buoyant cushions are attached to the frame members, thereby forming a chair seat, a chair back, left and right chair arms and a bolster block. The buoyant cushions forming the chair seat, the chair arms, the chair back and the bolster block each include layers of buoyant cushion material secured and sealed together by an adhesive deposit in overlapping relation, with each chair frame member being enclosed and sealed between a pair of buoyant layers. Each axle shaft and clutch are also enclosed between a pair of the buoyant layers. Each clutch includes a manual actuator that extends laterally through a passage formed in a pair of buoyant arm cushions, and projects externally of each chair arm at a side location in which it can be conveniently manipulated for engaging and releasing the clutch while the operator is seated or reclining on the lounge chair.
Each buoyant arm support section is reinforced by an upright arm support riser that is laterally offset from the seat frame and by a horizontal arm rest segment that is vertically offset from the seat frame. The left and right buoyant chair arms are stabilized and reinforced against collapse and separation from the chair frame by the upright arm support risers and the horizontal arm rest segments that are sandwiched between the buoyant arm support cushions.
In the preferred embodiment, the left and right arm support cushions project aft of the pivotal union between the chair seat the chair back. According to this arrangement, the aft projecting portions of the arm support cushions overlap the laterally opposite end portions of the bolster block. The arm support cushions are reinforced against deflection and separation from the chair frame by an aft extension bar attached to the arm rest frame. The extension bar is laterally offset from the seat frame and from the back frame, and projects aft of the pivotal clutch union. The buoyant arm support cushions are further reinforced and stabilized against vertical deflection by the clutch actuator which extends laterally through the buoyant arm cushions.
According to another aspect of the invention, the upright floating stability of the lounge chair is improved by extension portions of the buoyant arm cushions that project aft of the chair seat, substantially overlapping the opposite end portions of the bolster block. The upright floating stability of the lounge chair is also improved by a seat frame assembly including left and right seat frame segments each including an angled connecting portion attached to a central seat frame segment. The angled connecting portions slope downwardly relative to the seat frame segments, whereby the buoyant cushions in combination with the seat frame segments form a leg support section that slopes downwardly relative to the chair seat and buoyant arm cushions.
The floating stability of the lounge chair is further improved by buoyant arm rest cushions which are mounted on top of the left arm and right arm support cushions. The arm rest cushions extend aft of the seat frame/back frame pivotal clutch union, substantially in flush alignment with the bolster block when the seat back is set in the upright lounging position.